Solicitors' guidance service goes 9 to 5
25 April 2008
The Professional Ethics helpline that offers guidance to solicitors is being extended to run from 9.00 a.m. to 5.00 p.m. on weekdays.
The service, which handles about 4,000 calls a month, is being expanded by the Solicitors Regulation Authority in response to demand from solicitors.
Antony Townsend, chief executive of the Solicitors Regulation Authority said:
"We have listened and responded to those who wanted the service to run longer hours. Our ethics advisers will now be able to advise people before and after court hours, as well as help solicitors at the start of their day.
"A key part of our role as a regulator is to offer support to those who are trying to act ethically within the rules but may need help with interpretation. We would much rather help solicitors to get it right than have to deal with the consequences of a rule breach after the event. We hope this improvement to this much-valued service will help solicitors comply with their professional obligations."
Previously the service ran from 11.00 a.m. until 1.00 p.m. and 2.00 p.m. to 4.00 p.m.
Liz McAnulty, SRA director of Standards said:
"Only being open for four hours a day was not an adequate level of service and this was causing frustration all round. By revising the working pattern of advisers, we've been able to expand the opening hours. When we have recruited and trained staff to fill our current vacancies we plan to provide an excellent level of service.
"Although we introduced the 9-5 service in late February, we did not advertise it until now as we wished to pilot the new arrangement and thereby avoid any Terminal 5-type meltdown."
The most common queries to the helpline are about conflicts of interest and confidentiality and disclosure matters. Other topics in the top five are accounts rules, referral arrangements and retainer and relationship with client issues. The guidance service is confidential but solicitors are urged to consult the Code of Conduct before phoning in.
Note to editors – the phone number for the Professional Ethics guidance service is 0870 606 2577.